Slava Kozlov was once a member of the Soviet Union's Red Army, technically, but he never attended boot camp. You would never know it by the way the Thrashers' left wing meticulously cleans his paintball gun in preparation for a few hours of fun.
Kozlov said he sees parallels between paintball and hockey
"I think so — strategy, support to each other. I think that why we get killed today," he said.
Fortunately Kozlov and several of his Thrashers teammates have lived to fight other days in what has become among their favorite pastimes. Kozlov first got involved in paintball when he played for the
Detroit Red Wings. Brendan Shanahan and Darren McCarty were the ringleaders, and Kozlov got sucked in, eventually buying his own gun — the one he used Tuesday at the American Paintball Club in Winder for games with teammates, team employees and two Journal-Constitution writers.
Unlike Kozlov, who is wearing a Thrashers' track suit from head to toe in the mid-80-degree heat — for extra protection, he says — Eric Boulton, an occasional hunter, sports camouflage, including a brown-and-green mottled cap with the logo of the University of Georgia.
Jaroslav Modry, with his easy-going personality making him seemingly the most unlikely of war gamers, asks, "You ready to run around in the woods? Play like little kids?"
The day began with some brief instruction on safety and rules from the paintball club workers. Then the players don their safety masks — a cross between Darth Vader and the kind of garb a death metal band might wear — and set out for a course in the woods. (Kozlov also owns his own mask: "The first couple of games, the mask was too foggy. Every time — Bam! Bam! — right in my head.")
Full article:
http://www.ajc.com/thrashers/content...paintball.html
05-24-2006, 10:30 AM
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